Chapter 213

Chapter 213

The Heroine of the 1st Playthrough Remembers My Training.

Episode 214: Liana Rumenhark (4)

[Two days from now. Noon. That’s when the riot will break out.]

Liana’s noble voice, recorded in the pen, echoed in the room.

‘…Her Highness the Princess moved faster than I thought.’

I thought the timing of the riot would be delayed as much as the commoner faction’s approval rating that was taken away by me…

It seemed there were no significant setbacks in Liana’s plan.

‘Well, Liana wouldn’t have made a plan that could be blocked so easily. …More than that, since the recording is from about five hours ago, there are about 34 hours left until the riot.’

Liana’s movements were faster than expected, but now that I knew the exact time the riot would start, I should be able to handle it sufficiently.

I turned off the playback function and let out a sigh of relief.

If I hadn’t had this recorder, I would have been swept up in the riot without being able to do anything.

Just like with Vivian, the tools Tristia made were always a great help.

‘I should visit Tristia once this is all over.’

Even though I was busy and couldn’t help it, I neglected her for too long.

Actually, not just Tristia, but Lucia, Bianca, Vivian, Lilith, Iris…

Besides them, the other neglected women must be grinding their teeth.

‘…I’ll be sucked dry.’

Lost in thought for a moment, I gave a bitter smile.

Such worries could wait until everything was resolved.

Right now, what was important was how to stop the imminent riot.

I shook my head slightly to clear my mind and offered my thanks to Melpissa.

“Thank you for your hard work, Melpissa. You’ve been a great help.”

“Ah… no. It is an honor to be of assistance to you, Young Master.”

Melpissa’s face faintly flushed at my sincere gratitude.

Melpissa’s face still didn’t fully express her emotions, but considering the first time we met, just blushing was a remarkable improvement.

“No. If it weren’t for Melpissa… it’s hard even to imagine.”

What I asked Melpissa to do was to install a recorder in the room if she had to leave her side due to Liana’s orders.

It would have been better to install a wiretap that could be heard in real-time rather than a recorder, but that was impossible with Liana as the opponent.

Unlike a recorder, where magic was quietly embedded, a wiretap required magic to move in order to transmit sound.

Of course, that movement was as subtle as the electromagnetic waves from a smartphone, so unless someone was extremely sensitive, they wouldn’t be able to sense its existence…

‘Liana would have definitely noticed.’

I suppressed the desire that was slowly rising within me.

It was lucky enough that the recorder wasn’t discovered.

“Melpissa, I’m sorry to ask, but there’s something I need you to do.”

“No, Young Master. You don’t need to apologize to someone like me. Just give me your orders.”

Melpissa placed her hand on her left chest as she answered.

Her unwavering response was truly reliable.

“First, inform Lucia of the current situation and ask for her advice on how to deploy personnel. Also, if Lucia orders anything, you don’t need to report it to me; just follow her instructions.”

“Understood.”

Melpissa bowed her head at the same time as my command and rushed out of the room.

From now on, Melpissa, like Marjan, would become Lucia’s hands and feet, helping to deploy personnel.

It was practically entrusting all authority to Lucia, but it couldn’t be helped.

The reason I had been able to play mind games with the Princess so far was because I had enough time to think and review.

In a situation like now, where every minute and every second counted, Lucia was the only one who could see the same things as Liana.

Of course, just because I had handed everything over to Lucia didn’t mean I planned to do nothing until the riot broke out.

Rather, now that everything was confirmed, I had the leeway to uncover an important issue.

The Reason for Liana’s Suicide

I had to find out the cause.

Tzzzz—

“This isn’t it either.”

I roughly crumpled the paper I had torn in half and threw it behind me.

Hundreds of crumpled papers were already scattered on the floor, but I still hadn’t found the answer.

Frustrated, I lowered my head to check my shadow, but I didn’t feel the ‘sword’ calling to me like before.

‘Did it show me everything it wanted to show me?’

I thought it was terribly selfish, but considering it was something left by the me from the first timeline, it was just spitting on myself.

“…Haa.”

I let out a long sigh.

No matter how much I racked my brain, the answer wouldn’t come.

In the dream world, Liana clearly said she didn’t want to die.

In the end, Liana’s suicide must have been forced by someone.

But…

‘An existence that could force Liana to die…’

I wondered if such an existence even existed.

In ‘Academy Trainer’, Liana Rumenhark was like a cheat key.

Throughout this world, the number of beings stronger than Liana could be counted on one hand.

If Liana had fought on our side, even the apostles wouldn’t have been much of a threat.

‘The Crawling Terror’ would have been easily subdued, and ‘The Resurrected Fallen’ wouldn’t have lasted long either.

Ah, the current ‘Resurrected Fallen’, resurrected through my corpse from the first timeline, wouldn’t be easily defeated…

Even so, ‘The Resurrected Fallen’ would lose 99 out of 100 times.

The one remaining time might barely end in a draw.

‘…If there’s an existence that could make such a Liana give up fighting and choose death…’

Something came to mind, but it’s absurd.

‘The final boss has no will…’

The final boss was a kind of phenomenon.

Like rain falling, wind blowing, and lightning striking.

It had no will of its own.

It merely brought about the destruction of the world.

‘…However.’

The world’s most famous detective said:

-After eliminating the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Just as I was clutching my forehead,

Thump—!

“…Y..Young Master…something terrible has happened!”

Melpissa burst into the room, shouting loudly.

‘…’

I was considerably displeased at being interrupted when I felt like I was about to grasp something.

However, the panic on Melpissa’s face made it clear that this was an emergency.

And as I expected, the words Melpissa uttered were dreadful.

“The riot has begun!”

“…What?”

Before I could even grasp the situation, a loud roar and shouts echoed from outside.

“Take back the rights stolen from the nobles!”

“All humans are equal before the Goddess!”

Looking out the window, I saw groups of commoners scattering magic in all directions, chanting slogans.

Seeing this, I clenched my fist tightly.

‘There are still nearly twelve hours until noon, so why all of a sudden!’

Could it be that they knew about the recorder and used that to their advantage, spreading false information?

‘…No, that can’t be.’

The room where the Princess stayed was protected by a barrier that prevented anyone from entering without her permission.

And the only human besides the Princess who was allowed to enter was Melpissa.

In this situation, suspecting the existence of the recorder was the same as suspecting Melpissa’s betrayal.

If Liana had noticed Melpissa’s betrayal, there was no way Melpissa would be able to move around like this.

‘Then how did she find out that I knew the time of the riot?’

Biting my lower lip in anxiety, I suddenly realized something and muttered in a small voice.

“…She didn’t know.”

Liana didn’t think her plan had been leaked.

“…She just trusted me.”

Liana simply trusted me.

That if she carried out her planned actions at the scheduled time, I would definitely make a move.

That’s why Liana suddenly moved up her plan.

Of course, since things started so abruptly, the commoner factions wouldn’t be able to show as perfect a movement as they had planned…

‘…The problem is, the same goes for us.’

No matter how outstanding Lucia’s abilities are, there was physically not enough time to deploy the personnel.

She must still be in the middle of deployment right now.

“Melpissa, how is Lucia’s personnel deployment going?”

“T…that is…Young Master…only about half of it is completed.”

That was at least somewhat fortunate news.

Even if only half of the personnel have been deployed, the number of commoners was only 30% of the number of nobles, so in terms of sheer numbers, they should be similar.

‘…Right now, all I can do is hope that Lucia finishes deploying the personnel quickly…’

Clenching my fist tightly, I ordered Melpissa.

“Understood. I will go out and try to delay the riot as much as possible. In the meantime, Melpissa, go back to Lucia.”

There was no need to give Lucia separate orders.

By now, Lucia would have grasped the situation and be moving accordingly without me saying anything.

All I could do was buy time until Lucia completed the personnel deployment.

“That’s…impossible, Young Master. I cannot go to Lady Lucia.”

A sense of unease washed over me at Melpissa’s reply.

I pressed Melpissa with a slightly raised voice.

“Impossible? What are you talking about!”

“The dormitory where Lady Lucia resides is currently surrounded by a barrier erected by Her Highness the Princess. …Right now, no one can leave or enter the dormitory without Her Highness’s permission.”

It was a sudden declaration of checkmate.